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Spider-Man 2099 Vol 4 1
(Story) | NextIssue = (Story) | Editor-in-Chief = C.B. Cebulski | CoverArtist1 = Viktor Bogdanović | Production1_1 = Jay Bowen | Production1_2 = Alan Fine | CCO = Joe Quesada | President1_1 = Dan Buckley | Quotation = Well, look at you. Or me, I guess. | Speaker = Miguel O'Hara | StoryTitle1 = Spider-Man 2099 | Writer1_1 = Nick Spencer | Penciler1_1 = José Carlos Silva | Inker1_1 = José Carlos Silva | Colourist1_1 = Brian Reber | Colourist1_2 = Andrew Crossley | Letterer1_1 = Cory Petit | Editor1_1 = Nick Lowe | Editor1_2 = Lindsey Cohick | Editor1_3 = Kathleen Wisneski | Appearing1 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * * * Antagonists: * ** ** *** *** Two unnamed directors ** Unnamed others Other Characters: * * * * Several unidentified Alchemax test subjects * Unnamed Rapture drug dealers * * * * * * ** *** Agent Malik *** Agent Estevez * ** ** ** ** ** ** ** * * Races and Species: * * * * Locations: * ** *** **** Alchemax Genetics Facility *** **** ***** ****** ****** ******* Thorite slums ****** ******* Executive Boardroom ******* Miguel O'Hara's laboratory *** **** ** ** * ** *** **** * ** *** **** Items: * * * ''Casablanca'' * * * * * Vehicles: * * Whisper 3000 | Synopsis1 = Speaking in Old Norse, a grotesque human-spider hybrid scores the floor of his cell in an Alchemax research facility with his claws, before turning and invoking the word "Ouroboros." Awakening from his nightmare, Miguel O'Hara thinks to himself that his arachnophobia is inexplicable given that spiders are no longer a menace to society. Lyla, Miguel's holographic personal assistant, says good morning to him and asks if he wants her to psychoanalyze his most-recent nightmare. Sitting up, Miguel exasperatedly tells her to erase it from his sleep logs and snarks that it isn't morning. Lyla replies that she was just being polite and that while he has been getting more than enough sleep the quality has been subpar. Forming a chair from the Unstable Molecules comprising the inside of his home, Miguel tells her to spare him the diagnostics and that he just needs to sit down for a bit. Lyla admits that while she's not a licensed physician she has access to over three million of them, pointedly stating that Miguel is exhibiting symptoms of withdrawal. Miguel stammers that he's fine, but Lyla doesn't buy it, pointedly stating that his life is at stake before deciding to change the subject and asking if he wants to view his messages. The first of Miguel's holographic messages is from his brother Gabe O'Hara, who asks how he's holding up and says that he doesn't like how they left things off. Miguel notes that he and Gabe couldn't be more different, and that while Miguel is living the high life in the skyrises of Nueva York, Gabe is out in the slums of the boroughs doing outreach work with the Thorites. Gabe's holo-message says that while he has a problem with what Miguel is doing - and he thinks Miguel has a problem too - they're brothers and he loves him. Miguel cuts his brother off by deleting the message, telling Lyla to go to the next message - one from his fiancée, Dana D'Angelo. Dana's hologram kneels next to Miguel and asks him to talk to her, Miguel replying that now's not a good time. Dana's hologram exasperatedly asks when would be a good time, saying he's been avoiding her for weeks. Cupping Miguel's cheeks, Dana says that she's worried about him and that he hasn't been the same since their date at the movies. Miguel recalls their date, and that he hadn't enjoyed the movie as much as Dana had - the original ending to ''Casablanca'' having been replaced by a happy romantic ending created by an advanced AI programmed to give the audience what the majority wants. As Dana's hologram kisses him and says she's not giving up on him, Miguel deletes her messages and asks Lyla if that's all. Lyla replies that he's received an immersion request from Alchemax - Miguel attempting to cut her off by refusing it. Lyla says that he can't refuse it because the request came from Tyler Stone, Miguel telling her to reschedule. Too late, he finds himself dressed in a lab coat and sitting in Alchemax's board room, Tyler Stone wryly remarking that he looks terrible and that he's sending Miguel his next Rapture dosage after they conclude their meeting. Miguel refuses, but Tyler insists, joking that he didn't slip the highly-addictive drug into Miguel's drink and pointing out that Miguel himself chose to start taking Rapture in order to expand his cognitive functions and neuroplasticity. Tyler lauds Miguel's decision to do so, saying he's one of Alchemax's finest geneticists, but says he hasn't been himself since he returned from the Ravages. Tyler asks Miguel what he saw that so-badly scared him. Recalling the arachnoid Thorite, Miguel angrily retorts that Tyler knows all-too-well what he saw given that Alchemax created it. Tyler jovially says that he can understand how different being out in the field can be to going over test cycles in a lab, but tells Miguel that Alchemax wasn't responsible for the mutations Miguel witnessed, saying that they are naturally occurring. Miguel bitterly retorts that Alchemax is still herding them into cages and brutally vivisecting them; Tyler coldly responding that some would call those experiments a kindness, forging utility out of waste, and dismisses the inhabitants of the Ravage as revolting, meat-eating savages. Miguel firmly states that he's not coming back, Tyler begrudgingly accepting his decision but saying he has something he wants to show Miguel first. Pulling out a stack of $100 bills, Tyler says that despite money being worthless he keeps it with him because it reminds him that the world used to be a place where people foolishly devoted themselves to something utterly meaningless. Tyler points out that the world is a place where corporations like Alchemax have cured diseases, ended poverty, and where people live upwards of 120 years. Miguel sneers that most of those people can't even remember the first 40 years of their life, Tyler warning him to be careful what he says as the god-emperor of the world is always watching them. Continuing, Tyler says that they live in a world where humanity is free to pursue its true calling instead of just struggling to survive; but that the Thorites not only choose to spurn all that but live in violence, ignorance, and prejudice. Clapping Miguel's shoulder, Tyler wryly states that his compassion is such that he foolishly blames himself for the Thorites' choices. Saying that like most versions of Heaven and Hell, it is a person's choices that determine where they end up - remarking that perhaps Miguel has more in common with the Thorites than he previously realized. Tyler bluntly tells Miguel that unless he continues to take Rapture his mind will degrade until he dies, but that he cannot force Miguel to return to Alchemax. Saying that Alchemax is a place devoted to discovery for discovery's sake, where people come and go as they please, Tyler reminds Miguel that he was aware that his place in Nueva York is determined by what he contributes to society, and that's considerably less these days. Returning home, Miguel grumbles to Lyla before saying he's going out. Concerned, Lyla says she'll just wait for Miguel to return, asking if he needs her help and becoming dejected when he slams the door. One month ago, Miguel arrives at an Alchemax testing facility in the Ravage, and is told that the electrostatic clouds make advanced technology useless. The guard says that all Miguel will need is a scalpel to get what Alchemax needs, showing him to a room of cells full of mutated Thorites. Thinking to himself that he had been desperate for something to continue his stagnating research but that even the worst stories of the horrors out in the Ravage can't compare to the reality. As he begins his vivisections, Miguel notes that anyone who spends too long in the Ravage is mutated into a humanoid spider-monster by some mysterious phenomenon. Unfortunately, most of the mutations are too unstable to be of use to Alchemax. Hearing a voice speaking in Old Norse, Miguel walks over to one of the cells, spiders spilling out onto his shoes as he looks in at one of the spider-monsters. The monster smashes through the door of the cell, and invokes the word "Ouroboros," before collapsing on top of Miguel, dead. Vivisecting its body, Miguel discovers that its mutation is stable enough for him to utilize, presenting his findings to Alchemax's board of directors and impressing them; hwever, Miguel became increasingly suspicious of Alchemax's motives and quit the company... though he notes that no-one just leaves. Walking into the slums of the boroughs, Miguel notes that while people technically can come and go at Alchemax as they please, those who seek to get in need to take highly-addictive cognitive enhancers such as Rapture - which Alchemax is the sole legal proprietor of - and that leaving Alchemax means being cut off from the drugs, which have lethal withdrawal effects Arriving at a run-down apartment, Miguel knocks on the door, which is answered by a bulky man with horn-like growths on his head. Surmising Miguel is there for black market Rapture, the drug dealer ushers him in and smugly asks how Miguel got fired. Miguel retorts that he quit, the man remarking that he's impressed and that he hopes Miguel survives the experience. The man mockingly states that fancy city-folk like Miguel go about claiming they're reshaping the world for the better, but fall apart without a daily dose of Rapture, asking if Miguel has started hallucinating yet. Suddenly hallucinating that the man has green skin and a pointed purple hat, Miguel stammers that he's fine and asks to get the transaction over with. The man replies that he's happy to do so, as long as Miguel is willing to share the wealth. As one of the gangsters attaches a skull-shaped device to his head, Miguel notes that in lieu of money a person's status and access to goods and services is tied to their social capital score, and that anyone who wants illicit access to a person's social capital score has to become that person. The device called a Mystique, makes a perfect copy of a person and overlays it onto someone else, black-market traders using it to rob their customers blind so as to keep them coming back for more in a vicious cycle. As the drug dealer transforms into a doppelgänger of himself, Miguel notes that the process is agonizing, but at least it will be over soon, before realizing something is wrong as the drug dealer tells his flunkies to hold Miguel down and that they're keeping him. Miguel surmises that the dealer is greedier than most - who only use temporary transformations to ensure repeat customers - and intends to make the Mystique's transformation permanent. A buzzing noise interrupts the dealer's gloating and a hail of bullets punch holes through the walls as the Vultures - a group of vigilantes - break in and gun down the dealers. The last thing Miguel sees before losing consciousness is his brother Gabe kneeling over him. In his nightmare, Miguel watches the arachnoid Thorite speak in Old Norse and claw at the floor of his cell, but this time as it invokes "Ouroboros," it's replaced by a man in a blue-and-red spider-themed costume. Miguel wakes up screaming, finding himself in a Church of Thor as Gabe rushes in to assure him he's safe. As Miguel wonders what happened, Gabe snarks that he saved his older brother. As Miguel realizes that Lyla sent Gabe after him, Gabe says that Miguel still has a few people who care about him, and that he should let them into his life. Miguel berates Gabe for working alongside violent vigilantes like the Vultures, Gabe retorting that he'll work with anyone who can help him get goods into the boroughs. Miguel snaps that the Vultures are killers, just like the Thorites that Gabe is trying to get goods to, asking when his brother will grow out of his altruism. Gabe angrily retorts that not everyone has the brains to get into Alchemax, Miguel telling him to stop and that someone had to keep the family afloat after their father died. Gabe tries to calm his brother down, saying no-one except their mother knows better what Miguel gave up to work for Alchemax, but decries the people running the company as monsters - noting that Miguel said so himself when they last spoke. As Gabe asks what they did to Miguel out in the Ravage, Miguel says they didn't do anything to him. Gabe says that everyone's heard the rumors about what Alchemax is up to, but only Miguel can take them down. In response to Miguel's confusion, Gabe incredulously states that he thought Miguel went to the Ravage in order to document and expose their experiments on the Thorites. Miguel snaps that, as much as he hates Alchemax, he can't go leaking proprietary secrets since it will just be traced back to him and ruin his life. Gabe asks what Miguel is going to do, Miguel stating he was trying to find a new Rapture supplier, which didn't exactly work out, and that once he had his head back on straight, he'd sign on with a more humane company like the environmentalist organization E.C.O. Gabe snaps that E.C.O. is just a PR front for the sleazy corporations that ruined the environment in the first place and is run by the same sort of people who run Alchemax and all the other corporations. Miguel irritably retorts that there's nothing he can do about that since that's just the way the world is; calming himself before saying that while he wishes he had even half of Gabe's idealism, if Tyler Stone is right about one thing it's that the Thorites don't want to be saved and are preoccupied with murdering and pillaging - pointing outside to where a couple of Thorites are brawling with each other and saying that Gabe could be the next person to get blood-eagled for trying to treat the wrong person. Gabe begrudgingly admits that the Thorites have done things he wishes he could forget, and that the leaders are ignorant and bloodthirsty, but that the overwhelming majority are people just trying to live their lives - pointing to a family sitting in an adjacent room. Gabe pointedly asks Miguel when he decided that the only people worth saving were the ones he agreed with; Miguel mulling Gabe's question over before sadly saying that he just can't help, apologizing for letting him down as he walks away. As Gabe kicks Miguel's blanket, angrily asking himself why he can't just help them, he spots the Mystique that had been used on Miguel and decides to use take it for himself. Walking through a holographic graffiti-laden inner-city street, Miguel thinks to himself that his confrontation with Gabe had gone poorly, but that there's only so much he can do and he has his own problems. He stops dead in his tracks as he spots a holo-graffiti sign reading "Ouroboros" - recalling it from his nightmares - and then suddenly spots the man in the blue-and-red spider-themed costume clinging to the wall next to the sign. As the man in the costume takes off, Miguel chases after him, calling out for him to stop. The man in the spider-costume dives into a boarded-up subway station, Miguel plowing through the rotten planks and falling down a flight of stairs. Hitting the ground, he has a vision of the man in the spider-costume fighting crime in another version of Nueva York, but dismisses it as a withdrawal-induced hallucination. As he pursues the man in the spider-themed costume down the tracks, Miguel has increasingly numerous visions and collapses to the ground. Hearing a voice addressing him, Miguel weakly looks up to see an old man emerge from a nearby doorway, leaning on a cane as he introduces himself as the Miguel O'Hara of another timeline. | Solicit = • Miguel O’Hara is a rising star at Alchemax, but his world is about to come crashing down. • The future of the Marvel Universe is about to die and the world needs a hero. • As Miguel faces a destiny he’s tried to run from all his life, the secrets of 2099 begin to unravel here. | Notes = | Trivia = * Miguel's vision of his Earth-928 counterpart was of a scene from . | Recommended = | Links = }} Category:Digital Comic Code included